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Extremophiles in Soil Communities of Former Copper Mining Sites of the East Harz Region (Germany) Reflected by Re-Analyzed 16S rRNA Data

The east and southeast rim of Harz mountains (Germany) are marked by a high density of former copper mining places dating back from the late 20th century to the middle age. A set of 18 soil samples from pre- and early industrial mining places and one sample from an industrial mine dump have been sel...

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Autores principales: Köhler, J. Michael, Beetz, Nancy, Günther, Peter Mike, Möller, Frances, Cao, Jialan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8305195/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34209398
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9071422
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author Köhler, J. Michael
Beetz, Nancy
Günther, Peter Mike
Möller, Frances
Cao, Jialan
author_facet Köhler, J. Michael
Beetz, Nancy
Günther, Peter Mike
Möller, Frances
Cao, Jialan
author_sort Köhler, J. Michael
collection PubMed
description The east and southeast rim of Harz mountains (Germany) are marked by a high density of former copper mining places dating back from the late 20th century to the middle age. A set of 18 soil samples from pre- and early industrial mining places and one sample from an industrial mine dump have been selected for investigation by 16S rRNA and compared with six samples from non-mining areas. Although most of the soil samples from the old mines show pH values around 7, RNA profiling reflects many operational taxonomical units (OTUs) belonging to acidophilic genera. For some of these OTUs, similarities were found with their abundances in the comparative samples, while others show significant differences. In addition to pH-dependent bacteria, thermophilic, psychrophilic, and halophilic types were observed. Among these OTUs, several DNA sequences are related to bacteria which are reported to show the ability to metabolize special substrates. Some OTUs absent in comparative samples from limestone substrates, among them Thaumarchaeota were present in the soil group from ancient mines with pH > 7. In contrast, acidophilic types have been found in a sample from a copper slag deposit, e.g., the polymer degrading bacterium Granulicella and Acidicaldus, which is thermophilic, too. Soil samples of the group of pre-industrial mines supplied some less abundant, interesting OTUs as the polymer-degrading Povalibacter and the halophilic Lewinella and Halobacteriovorax. A particularly high number of bacteria (OTUs) which had not been detected in other samples were found at an industrial copper mine dump, among them many halophilic and psychrophilic types. In summary, the results show that soil samples from the ancient copper mining places contain soil bacterial communities that could be a promising source in the search for microorganisms with valuable metabolic capabilities.
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spelling pubmed-83051952021-07-25 Extremophiles in Soil Communities of Former Copper Mining Sites of the East Harz Region (Germany) Reflected by Re-Analyzed 16S rRNA Data Köhler, J. Michael Beetz, Nancy Günther, Peter Mike Möller, Frances Cao, Jialan Microorganisms Article The east and southeast rim of Harz mountains (Germany) are marked by a high density of former copper mining places dating back from the late 20th century to the middle age. A set of 18 soil samples from pre- and early industrial mining places and one sample from an industrial mine dump have been selected for investigation by 16S rRNA and compared with six samples from non-mining areas. Although most of the soil samples from the old mines show pH values around 7, RNA profiling reflects many operational taxonomical units (OTUs) belonging to acidophilic genera. For some of these OTUs, similarities were found with their abundances in the comparative samples, while others show significant differences. In addition to pH-dependent bacteria, thermophilic, psychrophilic, and halophilic types were observed. Among these OTUs, several DNA sequences are related to bacteria which are reported to show the ability to metabolize special substrates. Some OTUs absent in comparative samples from limestone substrates, among them Thaumarchaeota were present in the soil group from ancient mines with pH > 7. In contrast, acidophilic types have been found in a sample from a copper slag deposit, e.g., the polymer degrading bacterium Granulicella and Acidicaldus, which is thermophilic, too. Soil samples of the group of pre-industrial mines supplied some less abundant, interesting OTUs as the polymer-degrading Povalibacter and the halophilic Lewinella and Halobacteriovorax. A particularly high number of bacteria (OTUs) which had not been detected in other samples were found at an industrial copper mine dump, among them many halophilic and psychrophilic types. In summary, the results show that soil samples from the ancient copper mining places contain soil bacterial communities that could be a promising source in the search for microorganisms with valuable metabolic capabilities. MDPI 2021-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8305195/ /pubmed/34209398 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9071422 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Köhler, J. Michael
Beetz, Nancy
Günther, Peter Mike
Möller, Frances
Cao, Jialan
Extremophiles in Soil Communities of Former Copper Mining Sites of the East Harz Region (Germany) Reflected by Re-Analyzed 16S rRNA Data
title Extremophiles in Soil Communities of Former Copper Mining Sites of the East Harz Region (Germany) Reflected by Re-Analyzed 16S rRNA Data
title_full Extremophiles in Soil Communities of Former Copper Mining Sites of the East Harz Region (Germany) Reflected by Re-Analyzed 16S rRNA Data
title_fullStr Extremophiles in Soil Communities of Former Copper Mining Sites of the East Harz Region (Germany) Reflected by Re-Analyzed 16S rRNA Data
title_full_unstemmed Extremophiles in Soil Communities of Former Copper Mining Sites of the East Harz Region (Germany) Reflected by Re-Analyzed 16S rRNA Data
title_short Extremophiles in Soil Communities of Former Copper Mining Sites of the East Harz Region (Germany) Reflected by Re-Analyzed 16S rRNA Data
title_sort extremophiles in soil communities of former copper mining sites of the east harz region (germany) reflected by re-analyzed 16s rrna data
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8305195/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34209398
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9071422
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